Some instant messaging (IM) clients offer the ability to launch a voice chat session directly from a text chat session. A common scenario that occurs during an IM session is that the chatting parties agree to continue the IM session using audible communication, so they initiate a voice chat session. Voice chat sessions can occur using a telephone line on a public switched telephone network (PSTN) or through internet protocol (IP) telephony such as voice over IP (VoIP).
However, the information from the voice chat session is not typically saved. Hence, the information exchanged during the voice chat session is lost, and it is impossible to review the verbal interaction that occurred between the chatting parties.
Other conventional chat systems do have the ability to save a copy of the voice file for later review by one of the chatting parties. However, these conventional systems simply store the voice information in an audio file (e.g., a .wav file), which can be burdensome because of compatibility issues with audio players, the amount of storage consumed to store the audio files, and the inability to quickly review or search the audio files. Additionally, these conventional chat systems store the audio files separately from the chat history, so it is difficult to coordinate between the audio files and the corresponding text chat histories.